Mending
by Oparu
Summary: AU of the s7 ep Shattered. A very pregnant Captain Kathryn Janeway's Voyager is split into the past and future. The only way to put the ship together again is to enlist a Chakotay who's only just met her.


_= mid 2379 =_

"Chakotay?" she called over the hum of the sonic shower. "I want to run the new plans for crew rotation past you," Kathryn Janeway continued, leaning against the wall as the invisible pulses ran across her body, lifting dirt away. "Seven brought up an excellent point that we would be more efficient if crew members knew other positions in other departments."

"Does this mean you're doing a shift in deflector control or would you choose plasma flow regulation?" Chakotay called from the living room. She could hear him moving things around and grabbed her robe. It no longer fit neatly around her waist and she had to tie the belt just beneath her breasts. Making her way slowly to the living room, she rubbed her hands over her swollen belly and shook her head as soon as she saw him.

"I was drinking that," she said, sadly watching her cup disintegrate. She could replicate another one, but she hated to waste a cup of coffee, even half of one.

"That was coffee," he reminded her with a shake of his head. "You know what the Doctor says about coffee."

She knew, she didn't like listening to it. Taking his hands away from the table and the clutter he was trying to clean up, Kathryn put them on her belly. Drawing his attention to the baby always distracted him from berating her about coffee and anything else she'd done.

He kissed her cheek then smiled down at the baby. "How are you this afternoon?"

"Same as I was this morning," she said with a frown. "Grumpy, banned from coffee and far too pregnant." She put her hands where her hips had been, once an eternity ago before the baby. "You do know I drink it when you're not here, don't you?"

He tucked her hair behind her ear, and kissed the line of her jaw. His lips were warm and gentle and she relinquished her frustration to his touch. "Of course I do," he assured her. "I knew when I married you that I'd have to share you with _Voyager_ and coffee."

His long-suffering look made her chuckle and his slow smile crept into his dark eyes. Patting his cheek, she left him standing and retreated into the bedroom. Her damn maternity uniform was one of the many trials of her existence. The trousers were hard to pull on over her belly, the top itched and she hated the way it reminded her of a dress.

Chakotay followed her in a moment later. He knelt in front of her, easing her socks onto her bare feet. Her delicate ankles were swollen and the heat of his hands eased some of the soreness that plagued her. Kathryn closed her eyes and tried not to moan in pleasure. He had such a way with his hands.

"You could give up your shifts on the bridge," he reminded her, working his way up her left ankle and up into the stiff muscle of her calf. "Everyone would understand."

When his hands moved to her other foot, she sighed and lay back on the bed. Staring up at the ceiling of her quarters, Kathryn ran through the dozens of reasons why she should go off duty. Chakotay was a capable leader. She was exhausted ninety percent of the time; irritable and distracted for the rest of it. The human body could be pushed fairly far; she'd proved that again and again over the last eight years. Now, suddenly, after thirty-eight weeks of pregnancy, her body refused to be pushed. Her back hurt, her knees ached and she'd lost interest in staff meetings. She could barely concentrate through them at all.

"B'Elanna works her shifts," she reminded him. "Ensign Wildman was on duty until the moment she went into labour. I watched Ensign Hickman throw up into a spare cargo container because she wanted to stay at her post." She ran her hands through her hair then dropped them to her chest with a sigh. Pregnant or not, it was still her ship.

"You know there's a pool running with twelve-to-one odds that you go into labour on the bridge?" he said, working his way up her left leg as she smiled up at the ceiling.

Balancing on her elbows, she peered at him over the swell of her belly. "And what did you bet on?"

Chakotay kissed her knee and then crept up onto the bed. He lay on his side next to her and rested his hand on her belly without answering the question.

"You didn't?" Kathryn asked incredulously.

Chakotay chuckled, running his fingertips down the deep vee of her robe. "Oh I couldn't resist," he continued teasing her. There was something special about the way his eyes glinted when he was amused. "You've decimated my replicator rations. If you and the baby could manage to swing things my way I could actually eat something that wasn't Neelix's special of the week or your leftovers."

Smacking his chest made him laugh harder. "I can't believe you want me to cheat."

"I didn't say cheat!" He faked a shocked look. "I am tempted to keep you in engineering with a few malfuctions--"

He caught her hand when she tried to hit him again. Chakotay bent her arm gently back to the bed and kissed her slowly and lazily. Opening her eyes again was a chore, but she beamed at him. "I'll see what we can do."

* * *

_= late 2373 =_

Waking up in sickbay with a pounding headache was not something Kathryn had imagined when she'd finally left their quarters that morning. She'd gone down to engineering, partially because it was nice to get a change of scenery and partially because B'Elanna was the only one left on the damn ship who didn't coddle her. Now that she too was pregnant, her chief engineer knew all too well what it was like to have everyone on a very small ship interested in her body.

The fact that she might have ended up in sickbay in labour crossed her mind, as it had at least once a day recently. As she ran through her body in her mind, nothing felt like labour, and Kathryn was relieved. Now was not a good time. As if her daughter could hear her, she repeated it in her mind. _Wait_.

The Doctor looked stuck somewhere between puzzled and astonished as he stared down at her. "Lie still," he ordered. Puzzled wasn't a good sign, but Kathryn liked it better than concerned.

"You were transported here in a state of temporal flux," he explained as he circled her stomach with the probe from his tricorder.

"The baby?" she pressed. Waiting for him to elaborate was insanely difficult. It had been hard when she was patient and everything about being pregnant had worn her patience down to shreds.

"The baby is fine," the Doctor repeated with the same deeply confused expression. "Her vital signs are stable. I don't think your pregnancy could have been caused by a temporal flux." He dropped his hands to his sides and looked at her helplessly. "I don't understand. Your last physical was less than three months ago. There is no possible way for you to be in the last trimester of a pregnancy I knew nothing about."

"Doctor-" she paused as she sat up. Sitting up was complicated enough without her head spinning. It took her a moment to catch her breath and make the room hold still. "I promise, you've seen me for regular prenatal check ups. We talk, you lecture me about not drinking coffee."

"You should try to avoid consuming caffeine," he said curtly, still looking dumbfounded. "Have my memory banks been damaged in some way? You've changed your hair, My scans of you don't match your medical file; you have had at least three surgeries I have no memory of. Not to mention a pregnancy? Captain, something is terribly wrong. I must run a self-diagnostic--"

Kathryn waved him quiet. She couldn't think with him talking. Temporal flux: he'd said temporal flux. As she sat up the dizziness faded and the all too familiar ache in her back returned. She was definitely still pregnant, no matter how confused it made the Doctor. He seemed different; less personable than he usually was.

"Doctor," she drew his attention back as she carefully slid down to the floor. "What stardate is it?"

"Stardate 49692.3," he said quickly. "You and Comander Chakotay have just been cured of the viral infection that left you stranded on the planet called New Earth."

She had to think for a moment. Hormones made her brain run like a scrambled bio-neural gelpack. Moving her hand in few quick circles helped. "You got help from the Vidians," Kathryn remembered.

"Doctor Pel's assistance was invaluable," the Doctor agreed, still staring at her. He picked up his tricorder again and she stopped his hands before he could scan her.

"Doctor," she began gently. "I'm all right. The baby is all right. Stardate 49623.3 was almost five years ago for me. Whatever happened in engineering has done something to the timeline. Are there any other casualties? Have you heard anything from the bridge?"

"No," he said. The Doctor stared at her hands. "Five years?"

"I can't talk about it," Kathryn reminded him. Putting her hands on her lower back she straightened up as far as she could. Nothing short of a hot bath had taken that ache away for the last month. "Temporal prime directive," she continued. "Something I tell you now could affect the timeline and affect my present."

She took one of the medkits from by the wall and started for the door. It really was too bad that he was from a point before his mobile emitter. She could use the help. Kathryn felt his holographic gaze follow her to the door and stopped.

"Something else?"

The Doctor looked sheepish. He would change so much over the next five years. So much of his humanity was yet to come. "I know I am not supposed to have any knowledge of future events, but Captain, may I offer my congratulations?"

Smiling at him filled her with warmth. "Of course, Doctor," she replied. "Thank you." Still beaming, medkit in hand, Kathryn headed out into the corridor. She had a bridge to get to. The turbolift hummed upwards for a moment, then she passed through an invisible barrier and the medkit vanished from her hand. She stared down at it for a moment, wishing she had a tricorder to record all of this before the lift opened onto the bridge.

* * *

_= early 2371 =_

The bridge was dark; most likely in power saving mode because of the temporal incident. Crewmen moved around her and her mind took a moment to place them. Ensign McKenna, dead when a plasma conduit ruptured when they arrived. Crewman Surenses, dead in a Kazon attack six years ago.

Harry walked past her, working on something, and made it a mere half metre and stopped. "Captain?"

It was the same look as the Doctor's. That startled deer expression with just a hint of something else. Was it amusement? Complete shock? She must have been quite a sight. Her own body still surprised her in the mirror, a Harry Kim from the past must have been nearly having a heart attack.

"Captain, I--"

Putting up both of her hands stopped him mid-sentence. The entire bridge crew had turned and was staring at her. She couldn't be exactly sure, not until Lt. Commander Cavit turned from the command chair.

"Captain?"

Seven years after his death, Kathryn's heart twisted painfully for her dead first officer. He'd been a good man and someone she was proud to have served with, however briefly. Seeing him again was bittersweet. Had he lived, she might never have married Chakotay and their child... Kathryn rubbed the lower left side of her belly, reminding herself that her daughter was real and safe.

She couldn't tell him much. "In my ready room, Commander," she said quickly. Walking over to it slowly, she felt the eyes of the entire crew watch her. They were unearthly quiet and the chorus of whispers would wait for her and Cavit to be behind closed doors. Even in her current state, she was the captain and they obeyed her.

"Captain," Cavit began as soon as the doors shut, "what's going on?" he asked, almost pleading with her for it to make sense.

"I'm from the future," she said briskly. "Please understand that what I can tell you is very limited."

"Two of my- our- officers vanished when they walked down that hallway," Cavit reported. "What's going on here?"

"I don't know," Kathryn said, shaking her head. "Whatever is happening, I seem to be immune." The Doctor's serum: that had to be it. "Keep everyone at their posts, don't use the turbolifts."

Cavit still stared at her and his eyes kept falling to her belly. "Captain--"

"I'm sorry, Commander," she said. Squeezing his shoulder, she sighed and followed his eyes down. "There are some things I just can't tell you. You're just going to have to trust me."

"Yes, Captain," he said with a nod. He wasn't happy, but until he knew more he would listen to her. That would have to be enough. She was the captain, even heavily pregnant.

"Which corridor?" she asked, leaving the ready room for the bridge. The whispering continued for a moment at a frenzied pace before it stopped. They were a good crew, even now, on their first mission.

"Down that one," Cavit pointed his hand. "Lieutenant Markum and Ensign Cymala." Behind him, Harry's curious eyes never left her. He looked so young.

Kathryn couldn't take a tricorder, because it wouldn't follow her through one of the barriers. "It'll be all right, Commander. Trust me."

"Of course, Captain," he agreed. Whatever his personal struggles might be, he would follow her orders.

She smiled at him gently, hoping it would help. "If it wasn't for the temporal prime directive--"

Cavit shuddered a little. "Anything to keep Temporal Investigations away, Captain."

"My thoughts exactly," she finished, pointing her hand at his chest. Turning from him and leaving the past, Kathryn headed down the corridor he'd indicated. The Doctor was from five years ago. The bridge was stuck nearly seven years in the past. What was she going to find in the rest of the ship? _Voyager_ half constructed? _Voyager_ home in a museum?

The corridor was empty and she returned to a turbolift. Something was wrong. _Voyager's_ time-space continuum was shattered into as many pieces as a jigsaw puzzle. She had to figure it out. No one else could.

"All right, sweetheart," she spoke down towards her belly. "Mommy's in a bit of a predicament. If _Voyager_ is existing in different time frames, how can I put it back together? What happened to split the ship? The last thing I remember is being down in engineering--"

Kathryn stopped and clucked her tongue at herself. She should have thought of it before. "Engineering," she told the lift. "Why do you have to make it so hard for mommy to think?" she asked her belly. "Mommy has a starship to run. You understand that, don't you? Mommy needs her mind--"

* * *

_= early 2373 =_

Taking one step off the turbolift, Kathryn realised she was in trouble. Seska, that damn Cardassian, glared at her from between two brutish Kazon and several more of them filled engineering. One by the door raised his weapon to smack it into her nose and Kathryn flinched.

"Wait!" Seska stopped the guard before he touched her. "Well, this is a surprise," she purred. "I thought it was some kind of Starfleet sabotage, but this-" she waved at Kathryn's belly and raised an eyebrow. "This is something else indeed." The Kazon who'd been about to hit her forced her into a chair roughly instead.

Thinking quickly had formerly been one of Kathryn's strong suits. The baby had made her mind sluggish since the second trimester and no matter how much Chakotay tried to convince her it wasn't true, she knew there were things she just kept missing. In this instance, thankfully, her mind didn't abandon her.

"I'm from an alternate reality," Kathryn said quickly. She needed to look shocked. Could she make her expression look surprised? To get out of engineering, she had to be weak. Seska needed to think she'd won. Seska might be too defensive if confronted with a future in which she'd lost and had died, but she might accept an alternate reality. "I don't know why you've altered your appearance, but in my reality, you're a member of my crew."

"You haven't discovered I was a Cardassian spy?" Seska asked. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "You didn't notice I was passing messages to the Kazon?"

"No-" Kathryn paused. Her back hurt from being shoved into the chair and she let the pain show in her face. "No, the Kazon are our allies." It was worth a shot, wasn't it? She gritted her teeth, staring up as Seska as if the betrayal was still fresh. The breath she took actually sounded pained, and she counted her blessings. "Chakotay agreed with your suggestion. He made me see that fighting with the Kazon wasn't the answer."

"Just because you're smarter than my Janeway doesn't mean I'm going to believe you," Seska retorted with a sneer.

She had to get out of there. Kathryn gripped the arms of the chair tighter, letting her knuckles go white. She bit the inside of her lip hard enough to make tears spring into her eyes. Making a show of the fact that she was trying to hide it, she bit her lip more obviously.

Seska knelt in front of her, tracing her chin with her fingers. "This is a surprise, isn't it? The great Kathryn Janeway, barely able to look me in the eye." Seska clutched her chin. As much as Kathryn wanted to slap her hands away, she had to be weak. "It hurts," she said as she tilted Kathryn's chin up. "Did you know Cardassian women labour alone? It proves their strength. No one holds their hand and tells them they'll be all right the way you humans do."

"I'm not-" Kathryn stopped herself mid-thought and concentrated on presenting the most terrified front she could.

Seska slapped her, hard, and Kathryn no longer had to summon tears to her eyes. "Liar," she spat. "You can't fool me, Kathryn. I hope human-Vulcan hybrids don't have any problems in childbirth. I'd hate to have you die in the brig." Seska gestured to her guards and the two next to Kathryn grabbed her roughly by the arms and hauled her out of the chair.

Crying out in surprise and what she hoped sounded like pain, Kathryn watched Seska's lips curl into a dark smile. "I knew you and Tuvok had to have something going on. What was it that turned you? Did he take you in his Pon Farr?"

Lowering her eyes to the floor, Kathryn focused on her breathing. Pain and weakness were easy enough to fake in front of Seska when that was what she was looking for. Could she plead with her without going over the top? Seska would expect it, wouldn't she?

"I'd have them bring you to sickbay, but I can't trust you not to escape," Seska said with an entirely insincere smile. "A little bit of time living like a Cardassian should toughen you up." She was enjoying her former captain's perceived suffering.

"No," Kathryn pleaded with her, summoning as much fear as she could. "No, Seska, please."

"Leave her in the brig," Seska ordered and turned away.

The two Kazon dragged her roughly into the turbolift and Kathryn let herself go limp in their arms. One of them called for the brig. If they didn't perceive her as a threat, they'd simply take her to the brig and disappear when they passed through the barrier. She straightened up, putting her weight back on her own two feet the moment before they vanished.

Sighing in relief, Kathryn wiped her eyes quickly with her sleeve. _Voyager_ wasn't safe. She couldn't walk the corridors alone, not in her condition and she couldn't believe that hadn't occurred to her before. She needed help. The lift stopped. Kathryn started to walk out and halted. She didn't want to go to the brig.

"Sickbay," she redirected the lift. She couldn't take the Doctor with her without his mobile emitter, but he could definitely help her gain a companion.

* * *

_= late 2373 =_

Minutes later, while the Doctor replicated her a chroniton-infused hypospray and more of the serum he had used to treat her, Kathryn frowned at the computer screen in the Doctor's main console. The computer believed over two hundred life signs were on board and it was having some difficulty sorting through them all. She held off from smacking it and tried not to suck on the broken inside of her lip. It had stopped bleeding, but it still hurt. The stinging in her mouth was enough to detract from the dull ache in her hips and the more pressing tightness in her knee. Two more weeks, she reminded herself as the computer finally found him.

Commander Chakotay was in transporter room two. She had no way of knowing what time period he was from, or even that he was from a point in _Voyager's _existence where he could be of any help to her at all. He was her first choice though, and that was enough.

"Here you are," the Doctor interrupted her thoughts. "One hypospray and a dose of my brilliant chroniton-infused serum."

"Thank you, Doctor," Kathryn said as she planned her route to the transporter room.

"I hope you're aware how brilliant that initial cure was," he rambled as he put his tools away. "You had the kidneys of a twelve-year-old girl and the lungs of an eighty-five-year old woman. I'd consider writing a paper about it, if I had anywhere to publish it."

Kathryn patted his holographic shoulder and smiled at him. "I do appreciate it."

"At least someone does," he muttered and returned to his office. Kathryn held the hypospray thoughtfully and left the Doctor to his thoughts in sickbay. As soon as she was in the corridor she cursed herself for not thinking to replicate a tricorder that could handle the temporal variations.

"That's your fault," she whispered down to her daughter. "I love you, but, sweetheart, you're a menace." She carefully stepped around two unconscious crewmen in a dark corridor, and duck out of the way of one of those damn macroviruses before she found her way to transporter room two. It was possibly illogical that she'd come all this way for Chakotay, but he was the one she wanted most by her side.

_= early 2371 =_

He was just inside the doors, as if he'd been waiting for her. Chakotay, who would someday be her husband, stood in front of her in his Maquis uniform. The apprehension on his face faded slightly and his dark eyes widened in surprise.

"Captain Janeway?"

Sighing heavily, she crossed her arms over her chest. This was going to take some explaining. "Commander--"

Chakotay paused and tilted his head. "I no longer serve Starfleet."

This was going to be harder than she thought. Kathryn retreated towards the transporter pad and sank down to sit on it. He watched her then extended his hand to help. "Sorry," she said. "Captain Chakotay, _Voyager_ has been fractured into several different time periods. I don't know how many, but if we can get to the astrometrics lab together-"

"I wasn't aware starships had astrometrics labs-" he interrupted her. No suspicion was in his eyes, but none of the love and affection she normally found there shone back. It was poignant having her husband become a stranger, even temporarily, and her heart ached from the loss.

"_Voyager_ won't," she paused and ran her fingers in circles over her temples. "Yet."

"I take it you aren't fond of temporal mechanics?" Chakotay asked. For a moment, she saw the man she loved in his smile.

"Time travel gives me headaches," she complained, resting her chin on her hand. "I need you to inject yourself with this chroniton-infused serum and help me bring the ship back into the same time frame."

She held out the hypospray and her hope leapt a little when he took it. Chakotay turned it over in his hands and she wished for the man who trusted her implicitly. He was in there, wasn't he?

"If I inject myself I could go anywhere on the ship," he pointed out to her. "Why do I need you?"

"It's my ship," she replied quickly. That response made him smile but he wasn't sticking the hypospray into his arm just yet. "There are things out there you won't understand. At least seven years' worth of history that won't make any sense to you."

"And you want me to trust you?" he asked. His voice was patient instead of strained and his gaze, like everyone else's she'd seen, kept dropping to her belly. "You, who was hunting me down. The woman who has just stranded us here in the Delta Quadrant. Although, if you're calling me Commander, I guess this means that I take you up on your offer and integrate the crews."

Shifting her weight, Kathryn rested her arms over her belly. She couldn't help smiling at the last thought. "Luckily for me, you do. Chakotay, may I tell you a story?"

That brought the first genuine smile to his face. "I love stories."

It was a long shot. He might think she was crazy. He might be lost to her and she'd have to recruit someone else but she had faith. She always had faith in him. "A man once told me a story about an angry warrior. I can't tell it as he did, but I think you'll understand. The angry warrior lived his life in conflict with the rest of his tribe and he couldn't find peace, even with the help of his spirit guide. For years, he struggled and the only satisfaction he ever had was in battle. This made him a hero to his tribe, but the warrior had no peace within himself."

Chakotay first smiled, then sank down to sit on the floor in front of her. "What happened to this warrior?"

She knew that look. Kathryn knew it so well she wanted to reach out and stroke his cheek, but that would definitely not go over well. "One day," she continued even though her voice wasn't as steady as it had been before he started truly seeing her. "The warrior and his party were captured by a neighbouring tribe, lead by a woman warrior. She asked him to join her, because her tribe didn't have the strength to defend itself from all the enemies around her."

"In the Delta Quadrant," Chakotay interrupted.

"Do you want me to finish my story?" she asked him. Trying not to lose herself in his eyes was as hard as making the warp plasma turn purple.

"Please," he offered. His hands rested on his knees and she forced herself not to reach for them and the comfort that they represented.

Kathryn wound her fingers into themselves and forced herself to finish. She lost Chakotay's story as she stared into his eyes. As she finished, she was telling her own. "The angry warrior was a great asset to the woman warrior. He was brave and strong, and his heart was true. The woman came to count on him, for the burdens she carried were too heavy for her to carry alone. She began to wonder how she had ever led her tribe without him because it was only with him that she knew the true meaning of peace."

"And the angry warrior?"

"He was handsome," she answered without blushing. "His heart was a greater treasure than any the woman warrior had ever held before. It took her a long time to consider herself worthy."

Chakotay interrupted her, reaching out to her. His hand hovered over her belly, as if he was afraid to touch it. "Is this really an ancient legend?"

"I don't know," she answered truthfully. "I've never forgotten it and I believe the man who told me was right."

"Oh?"

Stretching her fingers tentatively towards his hand, she pulled it down to the uniform covering her belly and held it there with her own. The two Maquis officers behind him, who had been eavesdropping suddenly started looking away.

"It may not be an ancient legend, but it was easier to say," Kathryn finished. She couldn't hide her feelings, not from him, and no matter how much it might frighten him she had to believe he would understand.

"Might I guess how the story ends?" He kept his hand on her belly and his other hand brushed across her simple wedding ring. "Legends often end with a wedding, or the birth of a child."

"No birth yet," she replied, casting her eyes down mysteriously. "Though, you might be right about the wedding." The smirk came quickly and to her surprise, Chakotay nodded to her.

He took his right hand back and injected the serum into his own neck. "How do we put the ship back together?" he asked, getting to his feet. His hands returned down to help her to hers and when she stood up again, she could have been looking at her husband.

"We need to start in astrometrics," she said, blinking away tears that hadn't been in her eyes a moment ago.

"All right," Chakotay agreed. He turned to his people. "Stay here. This should be over soon."

Both of them nodded, she recognised them as a future security officer and an engineer. Kathryn imagined they'd have plenty to talk about while they waited for time to return to normal.

"When did you-" Chakotay paused and looked at her thoughtfully as he corrected himself, "I mean, when did we get an astrometrics lab?"

"Harry Kim designed it," Kathryn told him proudly.

"The young man who was trapped on the Ocampa planet with B'Elanna?" Chakotay asked. He fell in step behind her as they headed down the corridor towards astrometrics.

"He's going to grow up a lot in the next few years," she said. Pride rushed warm into her chest and she grinned as he joined her in the turbolift. "B'Elanna's going to be my chief engineer."

"Good," he said, returning her smile. "She's as brilliant as they come."

"She certainly is," Kathryn agreed. "She's saved all of our lives more times than I can count." Looking up at him quickly became too intense. Tearing her eyes away stung, and her stomach twisted uncomfortably. Shaking it off, she led him through the corridor towards astrometrics.

"And I thought you'd never be able to integrate the crews successfullly," Chakotay said. He was thinking about something, she could see it in his face, but he hadn't voiced it yet. "But, you mean that. It worked. Our crews work together, Starfleet and Maquis--"

"We're family," she promised him. Tapping the door into the lab almost ruined the moment, but his smile brightened when he caught the tears in her eyes.

_= early 2396 = _

Astrometrics opened before them and she couldn't help sighing in relief. It was as it should be, a familiar space that she could trust. Chakotay paused, turning back to make sure she was all right. That protective nature of his was always with her; one of the things she loved.

The young blond woman at the controls had unmistakably Ktarian spines on her forehead. She stared at them in shock. "Captain, Commander."

The older man at her side, more easily recognisable as Icheb, looked up from his work in tandem. "You look so young."

Kathryn chuckled. "I could say that you both look so old."

Lieutenant Wildman, Kathryn couldn't be more proud of her, was more focused on Chakotay and at his questioning look, she blushed. "Forgive me, Sir," Naomi said. "I've only seen you wear that uniform once. When was it?" she turned the question to Icheb, who smiled with a serenity born of years of experience Kathryn's Icheb hadn't earned yet.

"Neelix's costume ball," he clarified for her. "Four years ago. Seven let you go as a Borg."

Naomi's smile was bright and honest, just as it was when she was a girl.

"A Borg?" Chakotay asked and Kathryn wished she could give him her memories so he could share her pride in both of the people in front of them.

"Seven was Borg, as was I," Icheb explained without giving Chakotay much to go on. "You will understand in time, Sir."

"What can you tell us about what's happening to my ship?" Kathryn hated that she had to interrupt, but they all needed to go home. Perhaps it was just nervousness about the situation that pulled her stomach into a single hard knot.

"_Voyager_ has been split into thirty-seven different time periods," Naomi reported. Kathryn's look of surprise amused both the younger officers. "We've had seventeen years to upgrade the sensors." She circled the console, drawing both of their attention to the large screen in the back of the room. "A chrono-kinetic surge interacted with the warp core."

Icheb finished for her, and Kathryn wondered just how closely the two of them worked together. "It fractured the time-space continuum all over the ship into different time periods."

"I was in an accident in engineering," Kathryn remembered. Just before she woke up in sickbay. "An energy discharge struck me from the warp core."

"How do we repair the damage?" Chakotay asked, practical as always. She put her hands gratefully on the console. It was easier to keep standing with something to brace herself against.

She stared at the multicoloured model of _Voyager_ Icheb and Naomi's scans had produced. The baby moved, or shifted, and stab of something almost painful ran through her abdomen. Her white knuckles on the console in front of her were suddenly very real instead of the deception she'd put on for Seska.

"If we could get to a part of the ship that still exists in my time frame, maybe we could counteract the surge," she suggested, fighting to keep her tone even. "Stop it from happening."

"That section was the focal point of the surge," Icheb reported. A darkness passed over his handsome features and the nervousness in her stomach refused to abate. "It seems to have been obliterated."

"It's too bad Seven's not here," Naomi said, looking at the floor. Kathryn smiled. Seven's relationship with Naomi was something special, and she was glad it had survived.

"Seven?" Chakotay asked, curious. "The Borg?"

"Someone who knows more about temporal mechanics than any of us," Kathryn said without answering his question. "Maybe we can find her in another time frame." The thought of more searching exhausted her, but she was relieved to have a purpose. If Seven of Nine could come up with a plan, they could all go home.

She racked her brain. The most likely place to look was cargo bay two. Rubbing the side of her belly was something she did with very little thought until she caught Naomi's eyes on her.

Chakotay's deep brown eyes flit from Naomi back to her. "Naomi was the first child born on _Voyager_," she explained for him. "We rescued Icheb from the Borg a few years later."

"Icheb and I are going to be dubbed _Voyager's_ official baby-sitters in a few years," Naomi added, smiling at Kathryn's belly. "You'll insist that I taught her how to read by the time I'm twelve and she's five, of course, I'm told I seemed much older at the time."

"You always have," Kathryn told her, deeply touched. The warmth of the emotion seeing a fully grown Naomi produced in her chest eased the ache below it. It took her a moment to shake herself out of her thoughts, and Chakotay's hand on her back was a godsend. He looked immediately chagrined she when she caught him in the gesture.

"Commander," Icheb interrupted their trip to the door. "In case you were wondering, I never told Neelix where you hid that cider."

"I must get it out when the baby's born," Chakotay guessed, going along with it. As much as she wanted to stop Naomi and Icheb from telling him anything more than he should know, Kathryn couldn't speak.

"It is a great celebration," Icheb answered. There was a pride behind his smile that Kathryn couldn't have taken from him. Chakotay, Naomi, her and this baby were obviously Icheb's family, just as she'd want them to be.

"Good," Chakotay said easily. "Wouldn't want it any other way."

This time he took her arm in the corridor. The gesture was so much her husband's that her startled look made him pause. "I'm sorry," he said, "did I do something wrong?"

"No, no," she replied, still holding his arm. "You just reminded me of someone else."

"Your tame warrior," he teased, guiding her all the way to the turbolift.

"I think we've tamed each other," she said, acutely aware of how disarmed she was by that smile. "At the risk of sounding immodest, we're very happy."

"The best marriages should be," Chakotay agreed, watching her with a new light in his face. "How long does it take us?"

* * *

_= early 2375 =_

"To do what?" she asked, avoiding his question on the way to the cargo bay. She opened the doors into the grey-green world of the still-Borg cargo bay. Chakotay immediately shifted closer to her, another protective gesture that moved her heart.

"What's happened to this vessel?" Seven demanded, startling them both.

Chakotay's hand ended up firmly on her back and remained there while Seven outlined their plan. To his credit, he was only slightly disturbed by taking orders from a Borg. The way he stayed with her, barely breaking contact even as they returned to the corridor on their way back to sickbay, made it impossible not to see her husband in every moment he made.

_= late 2373 =_

Staying away from the Doctor's prying eyes was easier than if he'd been her EMH. That Doctor knew her tricks better than the earlier version. Discomfort was something she was accustomed to; being pregnant has been far from a walk in the park. The logical part of her mind promised something else was happening, but she needed it to wait. She had a ship to save.

The belt full of vials fit strangely over her belly and she fell into a whispered conversation with her daughter as she eased into it. Chakotay overheard the last of it. She hadn't known he was there and for a moment she felt foolish and completely exposed, then Chakotay smiled at her, taking all of it away.

"I never pictured this," he admitted, clipping his own belt tight. "I thought you and I might learn to work together, even become friends, but you talking to--" he stopped before he said it, but she knew it was on the tip of his tongue.

"Our baby," she finished softly. "I talk to her all the time. You sing to her, something that's put me to sleep more often than not for the last few weeks."

Back in the corridor, as he knelt in front of a bio-neural gelpack he looked up with a new question. "What's her name? Have we decided? Did I try to talk you into something from my family tree or are we naming her for your grandmother?"

"I've never liked my grandmother's name," she answered primly.

Chakotay got back to his feet and shook his head at her. "I'm going to marry you."

"Hard to believe, isn't it?"

He took her arm again, something it had only taken him an hour to make a habit. "Perhaps not," he answered jovially. "It makes a very excellent story."

"You had me in tears the first time you told me that story of yours," she admitted and her throat threatened to close with feeling.

"I believe that's one of the most romantic things I'll ever do," he said, stopping them in the corridor. The proximity of him was as familiar as the sound of the ship around them but she could see the wonder of the unknown in his smile.

"You'll do better," she teased him, dragging him onward to the holodeck and the gelpack they needed to inject.

_= mid 2376 =_

It was a warm night on a street resembling Earth. The only building in sight was a garage with the door wide open. Music, something her memory identified as rock and roll, poured from an ancient device with an underlying crackle. The bright red car was half pulled out into the driveway and the two figures inside were very close together.

She started to blush and Chakotay laughed at her side. "Someone on your crew is inventive."

"I believe this is one of Tom's programs," she guessed, trying to decide if they should just find the gelpack and leave Tom and his guest in peace. She was far more clumsy than she once was, and her attempt to move one of Tom's cardboard boxes dislodged some of his tools. They clanked to the floor and the doors of the car flew open.

"Captain," Tom said quickly, too embarrassed to gawk at her belly. Chakotay helped her to regain her feet, and putting her hands on the back of the car gave the twinge in her back enough time to fade.

"I'm sorry I didn't know you had this time booked," Tom scrambled to defend himself. B'Elanna slipped from the door on the other side and her gaze was quicker.

"Captain, you're-"

"Pregnant," Kathryn finished as Chakotay looked from one officer to the other in surprise. "Thank you, Lieutenant. I'd forgotten." The quip was lost on everyone but her version of them might have found it funny. Tom's shocked eyes fell on her belly and stayed there. B'Elanna's glance drifted back and forth between the two of them and Chakotay seemed to be trying to put it all together. He shared a look with her and she promised to fill him in later with a nod.

"The ship is in a state of temporal flux," Kathryn explained to B'Elanna because she appeared to be the only one capable of listening. "Chakotay and I are from different time frames. We're inoculating the bio-neural gelpacks so we can use them to bring-"

"The ship back into sync," B'Elanna finished for her. She understood. "Clever, Captain."

"It was Seven's idea," Kathryn shrugged and failed to hide a wince as whatever it was rushed through her belly again and took her breath away.

Chakotay and Tom kept staring at each other. There was a old anger in Chakotay's face that he barely fought down.

"Commander?" Tom ventured shyly. He tried so hard to be past his mistakes, but they still haunted him. "Everything all right?"

B'Elanna's surprised look was what calmed Chakotay before the two men went to blows. Her trust in Tom, even her love for him, was obvious when they touched. Chakotay retreated behind Kathryn, putting his feelings away.

"Of course," Chakotay said without conviction.

B'Elanna took a step closer to Kathryn, seeing something both men had missed. "Are you sure you're all right, Captain?"

Squeezing her hand startled the younger woman, but B'Elanna said nothing. Kathryn could have hugged her for it. "I'm fine," she promised. "Just don't seem to own my body anymore."

"Only a few decks left," Chakotay promised.

"Are you sure you don't need any help?" B'Elanna asked both of them but her eyes were on the captain.

"My car will still be here," Tom added, still looking at Chakotay in confusion.

"I have to be the one to put the ship back into sync," Kathryn said, reluctantly letting go of the car. "It was my timeline where we fell out of it. If we need help, we'll know where to find you."

"Aye, Captain," Tom said and B'Elanna nodded. Her dark hair fell around her face and the expression of wonder as she studied both of the visitors.

Just seeing her made Kathryn smile. "I was standing right next to you in engineering," she said. "You were telling me about the hoverball championship you won back on Earth."

"On a broken ankle," Tom finished, elbowing B'Elanna with a grin. "Did you tell her that part?"

"Of course I did," B'Elanna defended herself. "Didn't I?"

"You did," Kathryn finished. Chakotay's hand on her arm drew her away again and they left.

"I forgot you and Tom had some bad blood," she said when the holodeck closed behind them.

"He's not the first person I'd suggest that B'Elanna date," he admitted. Being that polite was nearly painful for him.

"Will it scandalise you further to know I'm going to marry them in a few years?" she teased him. He barely had time to react when she stumbled. Pain lanced through her abdomen, taking her breath away. He caught both of her arms and held her upright until it passed.

"Are you all right?"

"That's a good question," she said, biting her lip. Catching her breath took a moment and without him she would have had to hang on to the wall. "You, my Chakotay, keep telling me I'll go into labour on duty."

"I can't say I know you as well as he does," Chakotay said, "but I think I agree with him. We should get you back to sickbay. B'Elanna and Mr. Paris can help me. Or Naomi and Icheb."

"No," she shook her head, staring down at the floor until the pain eased. "I have to be the one to go back. It's my timeline. It's my first baby, my water hasn't broken. I could have hours before I need to be in sickbay. It could even be false labour."

He didn't look convinced. Her Chakotay would have argued with her, but this one was more diplomatic. "All right. Who's in engineering? What do I need to know?"

"Seska," she frowned at the name. She should have remembered that before. "Seska and a whole troop of Kazon."

"My Seska? The Maquis?" he asked, confused by her frustration.

"She's a Cardassian spy," Kathryn announced bluntly. She should have said it more carefully, but they were running out of time and the tightness in her belly hurt. "She betrayed both of us to the Kazon."

The news of Seska's true nature left him looking as shaken as she felt. He tried to put up a brave front. He'd had a great deal of surprises for one day. "I take it the Kazon are not one of the friendliest species in the Delta Quadrant." He thought for a moment, waiting for her death grip on his arms to ease. "Seska and I have a history, she may listen to me."

"You need a back up plan," she warned him. "Seska can't be trusted." Chakotay guided her as they walked, and before she realised it, they were back in front of the holodeck again.

"I think I have a good one," he promised as the door opened.

Tom and B'Elanna were standing behind the car and their conversation ended abruptly as they appeared. "Everything all right?" Tom said, looking them both over.

Kathryn ran her hand through her hair and frowned when she realised how damp her scalp had become. "A little change of plan."

'I need your help," Chakotay said. Having one of his teeth removed may have been less painful for him than asking Tom Paris for help, but he was committed.

B'Elanna was not a medic. Kathryn had only recently begun to see the young half-Klingon's nurturing side existed but she was infinitely grateful for the strength in B'Elanna's hands when she caught her.

"I'm fine," she promised as B'Elanna guided her to a wooden bench in the grass near the garage.

"Your hands are damp," B'Elanna corrected her. "Your breathing's uneven and I can smell sweat on you."

Tom grinned innocently. "Superior Klingon senses for hunting," he said, shrugging. "She gets me every time. Should we get you to sickbay?"

"Can't," Kathryn shook her head and to her surprise fresh discomfort, which had to be a contraction, stole the rest of her words.

"She has to return to her own time," B'Elanna answered for her when she figured it out. "Go, Tom. Help Chakotay. I'll stay here."

"I'm going to take this off of you," Chakotay said, crouching before her and removing her belt full of vials of the Doctor's serum. "Just in case we need it." He handed it to Tom but remained down in front of her. His hand touched her knee and she wanted to close her eyes and have him be her husband. "Are you sure you're all right?"

Kathryn hissed sharply from the pain in her belly. "Just fine."

That answer made him shake his head. "I think I deserve you."

Tom clapped his shoulder and Chakotay barely held off a reflexive shudder. "You really do, Commander."

The two men left through the holodeck doors and Kathryn again became aware of the rock and roll drifting through the lazy night from the radio.

"That Chakotay is from before the crews were integrated, isn't he?" B'Elanna asked. She only needed a nod from Kathryn. She knew the answer. "And you're from the future?"

"A few years," she said. Kathryn couldn't be more specific. The little holographic radio announced the time then returned to playing music.

"You married, didn't you?" B'Elanna asked, still curious.

Kathryn nodded again, tugging at the collar of her uniform before she gave in and undid the front of her jacket. "I shouldn't be telling you any of this," she sighed. She'd been so careful with the temporal prime directive at first. Maybe it didn't matter, the whole thing was just going to reset anyway. She was getting sentimental; maybe that was hormonal. "If you can keep a secret, we married just before you married Tom."

B'Elanna blushed bright red. "I marry him?"

"You balance each other," Kathryn said, trying to ease her embarrassment. "You're both very happy."

"And you're pregnant."

Kathryn had to chuckle. "Not, it seems, for much longer."

B'Elanna watched her struggle and then left the bench to ease her out of her jacket. As she hung the red and black fabric over the back of the bench, she paused. "Are you happy?"

"Yes." That was an easy question. "Oh yes." Taking B'Elanna's hand startled her a little, but she didn't let go. "I've always wanted children. I just never found the time."

"I guess you needed to get stranded in the Delta Quadrant to find it," B'Elanna said with a smirk.

"Perhaps that was it," she agreed. Anything else she wanted to say was forgotten when the pain found her. Inhaling sharply did nothing to make it go away, and it was B'Elanna's sharp suggestion that she breath that brought Kathryn back to herself. "I don't think I understood how much this hurts."

"My mother used to say that a woman could not, not until she had a child," B'Elanna offered. Pieces of the young woman's past were so precious and far between that Kathryn had to smile at her for sharing it. "Though, I've always taunted her I was an easy birth because I was part human."

"Oh?"

B'Elanna's small smile had humour behind it. "My mother also said that I was always stubborn."

Forcing herself to relax and breathe slowly, Kathryn tilted her head back and stared up at the holographic night sky. "I'm afraid this one might be impatient."

"We'll have you back in your own time soon enough," B'Elanna promised. She was unused to being reassuring, but the hand wrapped around Kathryn's was warm and strong.

"Chakotay will never let me live it down if we don't," she complained, tensing as the next contraction roared up to take over her body. She'd given the Doctor's endless stacks of prenatal literature a cursory glance. She'd meant to read it in detail later, when she found the time. Kathryn hoped Chakotay had; he was the type that did his homework.

"They're less than five minutes apart," B'Elanna told her when the pain and pressure faded and Kathryn was listening again. "The radio just gave the time."

"She is impatient," Kathryn muttered, lowering her eyes and staring down at the green grass and gravel.

"What's her name?"

Kathryn ran her hand in a slow circle over her belly. Her thin grey tunic was starting to stick to her skin. By the time Chakotay had the ship again, she was worried she'd barely be able to walk, let alone get back to her own time. "We keep debating."

B'Elanna laughed, reaching up to brush the piece of hair Kathryn had just noticed was sticking to her forehead. She paused, and then brushed it away. "I can see that, actually."

The summer air that had been warm a few moments ago now felt oppressive. Kathryn cracked her neck from one side to the other and tried not to be impatient for Chakotay's return. "He likes Alice."

"'Alice in Wonderland' is one of his favourite novels," B'Elanna offered, wrinkling her nose at the thought. "He keeps trying to get me to read it, but talking animals have always been a stretch for me."

It was easy to laugh at her. B'Elanna began telling a story of Chakotay in a bar and a trio of very angry Bajoran mercenaries and then told another, this time about herself and the first time she'd rebuilt a shuttle engine just in time to win an Academy engineering contest. The ever increasing pain and sweat of labour were reasonably far from her mind when Chakotay returned with Tom.

"The ship's yours again," he promised, reaching down for her hand. B'Elanna caught her other side and Tom grabbed her jacket from the bench behind her. "Let's get you back to your time line before this baby enters the world in the wrong one."

"I bet Temporal Investigations would just love that," Tom teased. He made B'Elanna smile and Chakotay seemed to have relaxed a little. The three of them around her made the walk back to engineering brief.

* * *

_= early 2373 =_

Chakotay ended up with both of her arms in his hands as B'Elanna entered the final calculations into the computer.

"You have just under a minute, Captain," she warned from a panel. "Do you remember where you were standing?"

"There," Kathryn pointed to the panel just in front of the warp core. "There was a bright light and then I was in sickbay." The beginning of a new contraction made her hiss as the pain worked its way up her stomach.

"I hate to break it to you," Chakotay said gently. "But I think you're headed right back there."

"You think so?" she managed to ask sarcastically.

"I doubt even in the future I'd let you have a baby in my engine room," B'Elanna quipped and Tom chuckled a little.

"Kinda messy," he agreed.

Chakotay placed her hands on the console and started to disentangle his arms from hers. "I suppose you're going to see me in a few minutes."

"i think you're going to win the pool," she panted, digging her fingers into the cold metal railing. "You bet on engineering."

"Too bad I won't remember," Tom muttered behind her. "I could make a killing."

Kathryn smiled. She'd lost track of the countdown and she knew this Chakotay was about to disappear. "Thank you," she whispered, forgetting herself and lifting a hand to his cheek.

"For saving the ship?" Chakotay joked, smiling into her hand when it passed his lips. "That seems to be my job."

She shook her head. Engineering was starting to fill with light and she was about to lose him back into the past. "For trusting me," she finished and pressed her fingers against his lips.

He met her hand with a kiss, and his smile crept all the way up into his eyes. "B'Elanna's right," he said as he began to disappear. "Alice is a great name."

* * *

_= mid 2379 =_

All the light became one surge of white around her and suddenly the warmth of Chakotay was gone. She nearly stumbled but she didn't have time. She had to stop the surge before time shattered again.

"Captain, are you all right?" B'Elanna asked. Kathryn heard her concern, but she didn't have time for it yet.

"We need a lightning rod," she ordered even as she fought to keep her balance. Hanging tightly onto the console helped a little. "Divert all power to the main deflector." B'Elanna didn't move and Kathryn realised she must have looked worse than she thought. "Do it," she ordered.

"Yes, Captain," B'Elanna finally agreed. Her fingers danced over the console. A moment later the screaming whine of the main deflector burning out filled main engineering. When it ceased, the lights were low and the myriad of warning beeps echoed through the room. Only hanging on tightly to the metal console kept her on her feet.

She heard B'Elanna order the repair to the deflector and the beginning of a report to the bridge. Her sigh of relief was followed by her own exhausted laughter. Dropping her head on top of her wrists, she panted until her breath came back and her heart stopped pounding. No red alert klaxons blared around her, but her body was definitely having its own crisis.

"Well, Captain," B'Elanna's voice was calm and surprisingly anchoring when she spoke behind her head. "Do I even want to ask?"

Shaking her head slowly, Kathryn let B'Elanna peel her hands off the console. Her fingers were too tight and she wasn't sure she could even move them without grasping desperately.

"Put them on my shoulders," B'Elanna ordered and she had to smile at her. There were moments even captains liked to be told what to do and being able to relinquish control to B'Elanna was comforting. "Klingon, remember? I can take it. I've got you." She rose her voice to a more audible level to issue orders to her people. "Martinez, I'm taking the captain up to sickbay. I want the deflector done when I get back."

"I swear you were fine a moment ago," B'Elanna said, stopping them in the turbolift.

"Temporal mechanics." Kathryn answered the unasked question. "That discharge we diverted so it knocked out the main deflector was--" She groaned and tore her hand off B'Elanna's shoulder to slam it against the wall of the turbolift.

B'Elanna laughed and it was comforting that she understood. "Hit it harder, you might feel better." She guided Kathryn's hand back to her shoulder and held her solidly beneath her arms. "It doesn't usually work for me though."

"Worth a try," Kathryn panted.

"The discharge you diverted, it did something to the ship before you diverted it. You went somewhere, didn't you?" B'Elanna asked. Curiosity made her voice light.

Clinging to her presence, Kathryn forced her eyes open. Nodding was easier than speaking. As if an outside force had grabbed her body and held on with a steel grip, all the muscles in her abdomen tightened down. Her startled cry was muffled by the pressure with which she forced her lips together.

"It's all right," B'Elanna promised her again. "You're all right."

Every damn contraction left her weaker in the knees, and Kathryn swallowed hard. "How do you know?"

"You're still talking to me, aren't you?" the engineer reminded her. The turbolift had stopped, but B'Elanna had waited for the contraction to end to walk her down the corridor. "So, you were standing next to the warp core then--"

Trying to discern how she was supposed to speak and move her feet at the same time, Kathryn was surprised when her body obediently followed B'Elanna's lead. "I woke up in sickbay," she said, slowly finding her voice again. "Five years ago. No mobile emitter. I went to the bridge and the bridge was seven years ago, still in the Alpha Quadrant- stop--"

B'Elanna halted. Her strong hands left Kathryn's waist and caught her upper arms. "What is it?"

"Chakotay-" she couldn't finish her thought. The contractions back in the temporal jigsaw puzzle were almost gentle compared to these. Maybe the baby didn't like time travel. Pain rose in a crescendo then held her taut like a piano string.

"Will meet us in sickbay," B'Elanna promised. She ran her hands up and down Kathryn's arms. "He might even be there now. I've got you, Captain. Trust me. Sickbay's just a few more metres."

"Lana-" she pleaded, losing the first syllable of younger woman's name. Instead of the frown she expected, B'Elanna smiled gently. Kathryn forgot what she'd meant to say and stopped them both in the doorway to sickbay. "What?" she demanded breathlessly.

"My mother calls me that," B'Elanna explained her shy smile.

Kathryn had never found it easy to read her face. Though B'Elanna wore her heart on her sleeve, she hid her emotions well on her features. This time, Kathryn thought she knew.

The Doctor started fussing, taking her hands away from B'Elanna. He pulled her towards the examination room on her left. She didn't want to go with him.

"Commander Chakotay has been notified," the Doctor told her. The lit probe of his tricorder circled her head like a buzzing insect and she swatted at it. However irrationally, she didn't want it. The Doctor moved behind her head, out of reach.

Kathryn wasn't sure what she wanted, but she felt restless; more ill-at-ease than she had swapping timelines.

She reached her hand towards B'Elanna, who stood just inside the doorway to sickbay. "Lana-" she said again, something in the urgency of her voice made B'Elanna pause. The younger woman only looked at her for a nanosecond before she came. Her hands wrapped around Kathryn's and cooled them.

"I trust you," she said firmly, replying to what B'Elanna had said back in the corridor. She needed her to know and she'd been distracted by the Doctor. "You follow your heart. You've never let this crew down when we needed you."

"Captain," the Doctor interrupted her. He was as frustratingly insistent as his damn tricorder probe. "Captain, how long have you been having contractions?"

She shook her head. She didn't know. It was so hard to keep track of time when one was bouncing through it. Kathryn wasn't even sure if she could say when it had started. "I don't know."

Tensing up before the next contraction started wasn't going to help, but she couldn't stop herself. It was going to hurt, the way the last one had hurt. She couldn't ignore it or work through it. The pain came in a rush and it took her outside of herself. She knew B'Elanna and the Doctor were talking. She heard words over the hissing of her own breathing.

"Temporal surge...Chroniton-infused serum...Active labour...Blood glucose...Cellular decay ratio..."

None of it mattered. It was faraway concepts and unimportant voices. The struggle that she could control was for breath and staying on her feet. She whimpered, squeezing B'Elanna's hands until it ended. There was an ebb and flow to this, a pattern like a sine wave that she could master if she could just wrap her head around it.

"It is not uncommon for first labours to go unnoticed in the early stages," the Doctor tried to explain to her. He tugged her jacket off her shoulders and Kathryn was happy to lose it. It was hot and sweaty and the more time passed, the stickier all of her clothing became.

"Your cellular rate of decay is off from mine by seven hours," B'Elanna added. Kathryn grabbed her neck and held her head still. It was easier to focus when she was close. "You went somewhere else for that time, shifting into the other timelines on the ship?"

She nodded, relieved they were piecing it together. She doubted she could have explained it coherently. "I was in the past, and then a different past and the future. Different parts of the ship were in different time periods. Seska was there and Icheb, Naomi..."

"Seska?" B'Elanna's eyes widened in surprise.

"Chakotay stopped her," she answered. The Doctor had his hands on her stomach. She knew it was part of the exam but she wanted to push him away. When he pressed his fingers in it hurt more. "Chakotay from the past."

"Up here," B'Elanna ordered for the Doctor. She inclined her head towards the bench behind her. "We need to get your clothes off."

"Kathryn, are you giving them a hard time?" Chakotay asked, slipping past B'Elanna and wrapping her in his arms. "They're only trying to help, you know." She'd just seen him, moments ago, but this Chakotay was hers. She knew him down to the feel of his lips on her forehead. "Are you going to tell me why you burned out the deflector?"

She shook her head, feeling across his left hand until she found his wedding ring. Finding the metal made her smile and her heart soared. "The temporal prime directive," she said. "B'Elanna promised to fix it."

Chakotay put his hands on her waist and lifted her up onto the bench in the examination room. "The Doctor wants you to take off your clothes."

"I was waiting for my husband," she teased him as he brushed back her hair. "He usually helps me with that."

"Does he?" he chuckled. His hands held her shoulders steady and the Doctor had B'Elanna helping him with her shoes. "He must love you very much."

"I can't imagine why," she chirped and he shook his head before he kissed her forehead again.

"I hear you took our child galavanting off across timelines," Chakotay said, brushing her hair back. It was starting to collect enough sweat to cling to her forehead.

Any glib reply she wanted to make disappeared behind the meteor-like impact of the next contraction. She'd been in ion storms that had less of a kick to them. She tensed her entire body, digging her fingers into his arms as Chakotay kept her from doubling up. Breathing in gasps and pants, she was a little dizzy when it ended. She'd pulled Chakotay in close to her and the Doctor was hovering at her side with a hypospray.

"You're going to hyperventilate if you're not careful," he warned, pressing something into the side of her neck. "When did you eat last?"

B'Elanna moved in when Chakotay crouched to help the Doctor take off her trousers. Leaning back helped her balance a little, but sitting up on her own was suddenly difficult. The skin of her legs was hot and damp, and she almost expected it to steam as they set her trousers aside.

"There's blood here," Chakotay told the Doctor with a trace of concern. Kathryn couldn't see it and she doubted she could tell the difference between the feel of blood, amniotic fluid or anything else on her legs.

"It's not much," B'Elanna said gently.

"Not to worry" the Doctor said briskly. "She can lose over half a litre of blood before we get concerned." He handed Chakotay a towel and the soft fabric ran up her inner thighs. The Doctor reached around B'Elanna, giving Kathryn the impression of being a panel three people were trying to work on at once.

"Captain, when did you eat last? This is important," the Doctor asked, easing up her thin grey tunic.

Chakotay slipped her right arm free from her shirt and jump started her memory. "We had lunch."

"Yes," she agreed, furrowing her brow. "I didn't eat on the other ship." She wasn't hungry though, at least, she wasn't aware of it. She doubted she could eat even if they wanted her to.

"I'm going to give you an injection of electrolytes and salts to keep you hydrated," the Doctor said, walking away to fill a hypospray. "Get her changed please."

B'Elanna reached around her back, unhooking the clasp of her bra and Kathryn stopped her for a moment. "You don't have to--" she started seriously. Her clothing was almost gone. Her blood and some other fluid was running down her thighs onto the floor. It wasn't the kind of situation she could drag people into against their will. "Chakotay's here now."

Chakotay stood behind B'Elanna, his hand comforting and warm against her knee. He wanted her there, Kathryn thought she saw it in his eyes. She wanted B'Elanna too, but she couldn't force her, not if she didn't want to stay.

"I'm not going to lose respect for you because I see you naked and you yell at me," B'Elanna promised and made her decision. Unhooking Kathryn's bra, she pulled it free of one of her shoulders as Chakotay got the other one. "I'm at peace with you yelling at me. This is one of the few times I'll be sure it's not my fault."

"Besides, I think I'll need her here to spread out the targets," Chakotay added, patting B'Elanna's shoulder before he held up the teal ribbed sickbay gown. "Let's get you in this, all right?"

The gown was dry and clung to parts of her damp skin. Getting it down across her belly was hard, and they had to stop when she had another contraction. Her forehead landed on Chakotay's chest and B'Elanna held her hand. If she crushed the engineer's fingers, she said nothing.

"You're not breathing," Chakotay whispered to her towards the end. "You're making it harder on yourself."

"He's right," the Doctor interjected, pressing the cold hypospray to her neck. "Let's get her into the main sickbay. I want to do another scan of the baby's position."

Sliding down from the bench and putting weight on her legs again made her breathing more uneven, and her knees were shaky. Her thighs started to tremble as they walked. Chakotay and B'Elanna supported much of her weight but her body wasn't hers. Her muscled ached and tensed when they weren't all united against her. Even her fingers hurt from the way she'd been grabbing the hands, arms and clothing of the people around her.

"Stop, stop--" she had to beg. She couldn't walk with her belly clamped down hard around the baby. It burned down in her hips now that she was standing, Wriggling her weight from one side to the other helped a little, and the hands holding her up were firm. It was a new kind of pain that assaulted her like a plasma shock.

"Breathe," Chakotay ordered, and there was more force in the command. "Breathe, Kathryn."

"I am," she snapped at him.

Next to him, B'Elanna chuckled a little. "Then do better," the half-Klingon demanded. "Stop holding your breath in the middle."

"I hold my breath because it hurts," Kathryn cried, wincing as she pressed her balled up fist into Chakotay's chest. "And breathing doesn't make it stop." The pressure in her hips soared past what it had been before, and she staggered into him when her water broke. Hot fluid trickled down her legs and for a moment, it almost tickled her ankle. The release of the aching pressure made her gasp in surprise. There was something else, something hard.

"I was hoping that would happen," the Doctor commented on the sudden rush of fluid. "Labour should proceed quickly now."

"I'd hate to see his idea of slowly," she complained under her breath to Chakotay. Her husband kissed her temple, saying nothing as he held her.

"In Klingon martial training, they taught us your breath was part of your power, the sounds you make frighten the enemy and channel your strength," B'Elanna said with a smug calm that Kathryn found irritating. Everything was frustrating, so it may not have been B'Elanna's fault.

"I didn't know you were paying attention when you went," Chakotay teased her, and the two of them bantered back and forth while the Doctor examined her. They were both so calm. Part of her loved them for it but a growing part of her just wanted them to suffer like she was.

The Doctor's hands did another round of her belly while she leaned against the biobed. Resting her elbows down on it, she felt Chakotay's hands run along her neck. His thumbs found the sore spots of her neck, pressing out the tension she'd accumulated there.

"Klingon women are renowned for their ferocious approach to labour," the Doctor chimed in. Maybe the history lesson was meant to distract her. "Many songs feature them slaying their enemies just before giving birth."

"Maybe it made them feel better," Kathryn hissed. Dealing with the pain in short, gasping cries was actually better than biting her lip against it. The skin on the inside of her mouth had seen enough abuse for one day. "I'd kill someone with a bat'leth if it made me feel better."

Chakotay's hand ran slowly up and down her back, focusing on that drew her away for a few moments. Then she had her head down, nearly flat on the biobed in front of her and someone was stroking her hair.

"You have progressed fairly well, Captain," the Doctor reported near her shoulder. "You have dilated to eight centimetres and the baby's head is in an excellent position."

Nodding that she'd heard him, even if she wasn't entirely sure what it meant, she let Chakotay and B'Elanna turn her around.

"Up on the biobed, please," the Doctor requested. She glared at him for being so perky. What excuse did he have for being cheerful?

Chakotay started lifting her up, as the Doctor asked, but she stopped him with both hands on his shoulders. "No," she said, then repeated herself. "No, I can't lie down." Lying down would make her helpless and if there were hours of this ever-increasing hell to come, she wasn't going to spend them looking up at the sickbay ceiling.

"Does she have to?" Chakotay asked patiently. His hands ran slowly down her shoulders and then back up again in constant contact. B'Elanna had backed off for a moment to take off her uniform jacket and she switched places with Chakotay.

"I've got her," B'Elanna said as they traded hands.

"No," the Doctor answered Chakotay's question and entered Kathryn's steadily narrowing field of vision. "I have a number of methods of managing your pain, Captain, if that is your concern."

"Can't look at the goddamn ceiling," she said. It started as a growl and ended in a moan.

"Stay with it," B'Elanna urged. Kathryn's hands were slick with sweat as she held her bare arms. Chakotay and the Doctor spoke in hushed tones past the limit of her hearing. When he returned, Chakotay had that smile she loved hating.

"She's right," he agreed with B'Elanna. "You need to focus."

She grabbed his grey undershirt and balled it up in her hand as she pulled him down towards her. "I don't want to focus," she panted. "It hurts. Everything hurts and if I focus, it hurts."

"You're stronger than this," he assured her. He ran his hand over her belly and she barely managed not to swat it away. Somewhere beneath the haze pain had pulled over her brain, she was annoyed. That didn't make any sense, but even her thoughts were slowly abandoning her. Maybe it was the pain melted the last of her ability to think.

"I'm not," she promised him bitterly. Letting go of his shirt, she pushed him weakly back away. "I can't."

"You're doing great," Chakotay promised her, still smiling.

"I'm not-"

"Yes, yes, you are," he soothed. She flinched back when he reached for her, and she didn't understand why she suddenly wanted to be isolated. He was trying to help.

"Commander-" the Doctor called, and then he was gone again. She knew he was less than a metre away. She didn't want him to touch her because that made her angry. Breathing made her angry. The wet tendrils of her hair clinging to her neck made her furious.

B'Elanna remained a barely a hand's reach away. She kept her distance and only touched Kathryn's back when she wavered a little where she stood. Leaning back down against the biobed changed the stabbing pressure against her spine to something she could manage without screaming in pain. Not that she had, yet.

Kathryn was only faintly aware of the universe a few centimetres past her skin. After that, people and the lights of sickbay melted together into washed out colour and things she hated. It was like being bathed in static electricity. Everything around her sent off crackles of emotion.

She may have threatened to decompile the Doctor's program, bust B'elanna down to the rank of crewman and snapped at Chakotay like a tropical Ktarian river shark. Kathryn was partially aware of her actions when the haze started to lift. Pain, tearing and pressure were her new universe, and everything outside of that was part of some dream she hated and couldn't escape from.

Kathryn definitely hit the Doctor. His surprised look and the way he lowered her hand back into Chakotay's were etched into her mind. B'Elanna was much better at deflecting potential blows. Chakotay got the worst of it. She clung to him, then pushed him away. She wanted him and she didn't; there were moments where she wished she'd never met him, much less married him. She may have screamed that at him once or twice.

The steady sine wave of contractions and pauses had increased in frequency so much that the pauses were nearly gone. Chakotay had completely given up on trying to get her to breathe; he was wisely trying to keep her calm. Her helpless anger that something so simple could have become so damn difficult was an argument she screamed and sobbed at B'Elanna. Breathing hurt. Standing, sitting, walking- all of them were consumed with pain that was as unpredictable as a supernova. Why didn't any of them understand?

Her spine had been wrenched out of place and her hips smouldered from a slow burn that settled lower and lower in her body. There was more blood, sticky on her legs, and she was sodden with sweat.

"Breathe, Kathryn," B'Elanna demanded ruthlessly. When had she stopped being the captain? When had she lost herself? Why was it so hard to do what she was told? "Breathe."

She hated the word. Kathryn hated the struggle against her rib cage for air and she hated drowning in pain. She shook her head, protesting in a wail before she remembered how to do what B'Elanna wanted. She choked, but then air rushed into her chest. Gasping for air brought her back and B'Elanna's dark, concerned eyes snapped into focus beneath her ridged forehead.

"I'm sorry," Kathryn whispered, surprised by her own re-emergence into reality. Regret, she was able to recognise and understand, tightened her throat.

Chakotay kissed her cheek. He sat behind her as they guided her up to a sitting position on the biobed, his arms held her legs up tight against her chest. She was easier to move now that she'd stopped fighting. Her back was firmly propped against his chest and she could feel his breathing. "You're incredible, Kathryn."

Guilt blossomed hot in her chest. "I think I was just dreadful--"

"You were," B'Elanna promised her with a wry smile. "I didn't know you swore in Vulcan."

"I did," Chakotay admitted and kissed her head again. "We're going to push."

"I can't," she answered simply. They couldn't possibly want her to do that. Hadn't she done enough? Was there ever an end to this whole damn experience? "Chakotay," she pleaded with him, her voice climbing in pitch. "I can't."

"Yes, you can," he promised. "You're doing beautifully."

"This is the end, Captain," the Doctor promised with a proud smile. "A little hard work, and you'll be holding your baby."

"I'm done working," she begged B'Elanna to understand.

The engineer patted her hand sympathetically. "You can do this. You made it this far."

"I can't--" she pleaded with Chakotay and the Doctor. The catch in her voice was nearly a sob. Why didn't any of them believe her? If anyone knew what she couldn't do, it was her. She'd done enough, had enough, suffered enough; dammit, she was tired.

"Push," the Doctor ordered as he watched her legs. "Push, Captain."

She didn't want to be the captain. She couldn't. She couldn't do any of it anymore. She was worn thin and weak. This was beyond her ability. She'd failed all of them.

"No," she cried, trying to look at Chakotay. She had to make him understand.

"Push," the Doctor repeated.

B'Elanna held both of her hands, dragging her upwards. Chakotay had her shoulders, and neither of them was going to let her stop. Pushing into the burning pain in her crotch was the last thing she would have imagined ever bringing relief, but it did. Pushing gave her something she could do. Pushing felt right, finally, after hours of wrong and agony and confusion.

"Good," Chakotay murmured into her ear. "You're almost there."

B'Elanna's eyes were wide and dark with shock, but she was smiling. Her eyes flicked up from what the Doctor was doing down between Kathryn's legs and she watched the shock fade from B'Elanna's eyes as she caught her breath.

"You're close," she agreed with Chakotay. "And you're breathing."

"I'm finally breathing," Kathryn agreed, and the weak little laugh flooded her with new energy. "Finally."

"Took you long enough," Chakotay said. He softened the jibe with a kiss. "Almost there Kathryn, stay with us."

"I never left," she grunted, then finally gasped. "I think--" The baby was... She could feel something wet against her leg. The Doctor's hands were there, but there was something else. Beyond the burning, and the feeling something was being torn from her, Kathryn could feel the baby. "Oh--" she moaned in surprise.

"Push," the Doctor ordered her again. "Push."

Leaning forward and through her legs, Kathryn poured everything she had left into pushing. This was it, the first thing in the whole damn labour she could control, and she was going to beat it. The heat, tightness and agony of the baby's presence within her vanished into wet emptiness.

"I have the baby," the Doctor reported and she thought she heard laughter in his voice.

B'Elanna had a single stray tear on the left side of her face, and Kathryn reached for it in a dream state. Catching her hand, B'Elanna squeezed it hard. "She's slimy," she told Chakotay, who began to chuckle. "She's beautiful, Chakotay, but right now she's a little gooey."

Kathryn could feel his chest shaking behind her, and his arms wrapped tightly around her. He kissed her hair, again and again. "Wait until you see her," he whispered. "Kathryn, she's beautiful."

"Ten fingers, ten toes, two ears, two eyes--" the Doctor counted happily after he severed the umbilical cord. Kathryn saw the flash of the laser scalpel. "And she seems too interested in looking around to cry just yet. She may be quite the explorer."

He moved one of the towels, drying her off and then the baby wailed. The thin, bleating sound hung in the air of sickbay and Kathryn hugged Chakotay's arms fiercely against her chest. She still couldn't see the baby, but her eyes had filled with tears and even if the angle had been better, she might not have been able to see anything through them.

"Maybe you'd like to clean her up, Commander?" the Doctor asked, beaming at them. "She's completely perfect."

"I'll be right here," Chakotay promised her. He kissed her neck, moving her hair aside. "You'll be able to see me," he finished before he started to leave the bed.

B'Elanna moved closer, holding her so she was steady as she sat up on her own. "I think she got Chakotay's hair," she observed. "You did it."

"Not without you three," Kathryn replied. Gratitude welled up in her chest, tightening it all over again. Relief was a pleasant heat, a wave of welcome release. All was right with the universe.

"You were quite ably assisted," the Doctor nodded to B'Elanna as he finished his external exam. "If I do say so myself," he finished, smiling. "Now, if we can impose further on the good ieutelnant."

Kathryn clumsily stroked B'Elanna's cheek. "Thank you," she murmured. "Thank you for being here."

"I couldn't say no," B'Elanna answered, rescuing Kathryn's trembling hand and holding it tight. "I can always find a way to use a few of those words when I want to make Tuvok raise an eyebrow."

Kathryn laughed weakly and took the Doctor's hand when he circled to her side. "Where do you think I learned them?"

"You have minor tearing," the Doctor explained, content with her condition. "Nothing a dermal regenerator can't fix. You need to deliver the placenta first."

Kathryn rolled her eyes and looked past the Doctor to Chakotay and the baby. It wasn't fair he got to be with the baby and she had more pushing. He was so happy looking down at her.

"After this you're done," B'Elanna said reassuringly. "You can go back to your quarters and sleep for days."

The Doctor huffed his amusement. "Not likely with a newborn."

A slow, almost aftershock-like contraction, crept over her belly and Kathryn looked to the Doctor for an explanation as she frowned.

"Good," he said, getting a firm grip on her hand. "Time to push."

Her eyes stung with tears again as they coached her through pushing. The placenta was a completely different sensation, something soft and yielding after the hardness of the baby's skull. It took a few contractions, and energy she didn't know she'd had left. She was tired, more so than she realised. The placenta was hot and wet against her leg for a moment before it was gone and her body was finally still.

B'Elanna guided her down when the Doctor was satisfied that the afterbith was intact. She still had her hand, and Kathryn smiled up at her. It took an eternity for him to cross sickbay. Kathryn turned her head, watching Chakotay finish with the baby and bring her over.

"Here's your mother," he told the baby with a proud smile. "She's been waiting for you."

The baby's eyes were half-open, and dark blue irises looked up at her mother from Chakotay's arms.

"Ready?" he asked her, beaming.

Stroking their baby's cheek with her finger, Kathryn shook her head. "I didn't think I'd ever be ready for this." She sighed and looked up at him in wonder. "She's so small, Chakotay."

"She's tough," he promised. "A lot like her mother."

Kathryn laughed and turned her eyes towards B'Elanna. "She has role models tougher than me."

"Not many," B'Elanna joked. She brushed her hand reverent against the baby's fist and smiled. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go tell the half the crew waiting in the corridor that everyone's fine."

"Lana--"

"It was wonderful," the engineer promised her. "However, I don't think I'm switching to medical from engineering any time soon." She leaned down quickly and hugged her, Kathryn surprised her by hanging on tightly.

"I needed you," she whispered to her.

"I'm glad I was here," B'Elanna replied, struggling with tears when Kathryn released her. "See you three later."

"You were right, B'Elanna," Chakotay teased her gently. "She was beautiful," he said, holding up the baby so she could see. "Thank you."

"Of course, Chakotay," she replied. "Someone has to be the bad guy."

Kathryn watched them hug carefully around the baby.

B'Elanna turned quickly and left, brushing her eyes dry before she opened the door. She suspected her chief engineer was headed straight for her husband and his betting pool. Tuvok would have logically surmise that everything was fine, but she thought he'd pay his respects in a few hours. Seven would express her concern, and she wondered drones worried about labour. She'd meant to talk to her before and just hadn't had the time. Harry was probably anxious and she hoped Tom was looking out for him.

The Doctor would announce the baby's arrival shortly, but B'Elanna's first hand account would be better. Everything was fine and she'd feel better when the crew knew that.

Kathryn thought she heard voices outside the door, but she forgot all about them when Chakotay laid the baby down on her chest. Everything faded away except for the tiny face looking up at her. How little she weighed startled her and she glanced up at him.

"Three point one kilograms," he reported, resting his hands on her shoulders. "Hardly seems like anything, does it?"

Kathryn looked down at their daughter's wrinkled, red little face and her heart was eternally lost. "You seemed bigger before," she said, surprised by how much her voice broke. "Alice-" she paused, and glanced at Chakotay for confirmation.

He bent down to kiss her forehead. Chakotay brushed her hair aside and his hands finished lovingly on her shoulders. "I like Alice."

She began crying in earnest, staring down at the tiny person in her arms. Chakotay brushed her tears aside and one of his hands remained on her cheek. "Alice-"

"Gretchen," he interrupted her firmly. They'd been debating back and forth about middle names, and he kept insisting he wanted her mother's name.

"Chakotay--"

"Welcome to _Voyager_," he told their perfect daughter. "Alice Gretchen Janeway. It's a fine ship, and you'll grow up here surrounded by family who loves you. You'll find your way here, just as we all did. You're a part of our stories already, but this is the beginning of yours."

"May it be a happy one," Kathryn added, "long and rich and full."

"I think it will be," Chakotay promised her. He kissed her cheek, then moved so he could really kiss her. "She started in a love story. What better start is there?"

"I thought it was an ancient legend..."

He chuckled and kissed her cheek. "Legends can be love stories too. It keeps listeners interested."

Kathryn took her hand from the baby and fumbled for his until she found it. Holding it tightly, she looked from him to the baby then back to his endless dark eyes. "Legend or not, I love you, Chakotay."

"i love you too," he answered, stroking her hand with his. "Both of you."


End file.
